The Workspace
Large Content Area
The content editing area should be as large as possible, so consider making utility windows and other editing areas compact and efficient, it can be tempting in this day and age to double or triple pad every control, this is a bad idea with complex software, as you're robbing space from places that need it more and the consequences of doing so will be serious, but won't show up immediately.
Graphically Rich
Convey the purpose and meaning of controls and items with graphical previews / explanations. This could also be termed graphical feed-forward, this is particularly useful for abstract controls where it's difficult for users to grasp what exactly their choices will mean. The best of both worlds is when you can combine rich graphics to create an interface for abstract controls. Here's a particularly good example of this from Cavalry designed by André Maura.
Direct Manipulation
Put editing controls in the content area - for example there are endless helpers and contextual tools in Google Sheets which speed workflows, in a graphics program this could be editing a gradient in the content area (as shown above). Anything which puts a user closer to the content they're creating and puts distance between them and control panels is a good thing for reducing friction and increasing the likelihood of flow state.
Customisability
Allow users to customise the interface to suit the way they want to work, or the kind of work that they do. Customising window layouts or toolbar contents are two of the most common ways of supporting this.
Place, Not Space
Barbara Mirel draws a distinction between designing an electronic "place" and an electronic "space."1 A space is neutral and generic — a blank canvas with controls. A place reflects the user's professional identity, roles, and responsibilities. When a video editor opens their timeline, they should see something that feels like their working environment, not a generic data grid. The workspace should evoke the user's domain and role.
Workspace Seeding
Expert users actively "seed" their workspaces with markers, reminders, highlights, and spatial cues — annotations that help them remember where they are, what they've done, and what needs attention.1 A 3D artist pins reference images in the corner of their viewport. A video editor colour-codes clips by scene. A data analyst highlights suspicious values for later review. This practice of workspace seeding is essential to maintaining situational awareness across complex, multi-session projects. Support it by allowing users to annotate, colour-tag, pin, arrange, and mark elements in their workspace — and by preserving these arrangements across sessions.
State Persistence
The workspace should survive interruptions and session boundaries without requiring the user to manually save or restore their working state. Jef Raskin argues that the system should maintain complete work state automatically — instant resume from any interruption, no "save" decision required.2 When a user returns to a project after a week away, the workspace should be exactly as they left it, with all panels, selections, scroll positions, and annotations preserved.